Wednesday Market

A few more film photos, from the weekly Farmer's Market in our historic district. My roommates have gone to the Saturday market a few times this summer, but I always have to work on Saturdays & I have been so jealous! Luckily for me, my town also holds the Wednesday market, so I had a fun photo date with my friend Lisa a few weeks ago.




Lisa is a really talented photographer and design student who works with an excellent photographer named Josh Durias, who recently shot my good friend's wedding--see his work here. She did a lovely "360" of the market, which you can see on her tumblr here. Here are a few photos she took:




I love going places with people who also love taking photos, because they don't mind if I stop every couple of feet to photograph something. Kindred spirits!

la fleur et le chien

I cannot help but to photograph my mother's garden when I go home, as you may know from this post or this post. I have hundreds of wonderful memories in my parents' yard growing up, from BBQs to running in the sprinkler to picking bouquets to surprise my mama with, and everything in between. Their yard is currently bursting with color and was just begging me to capture it.





My parents entertain quite often, especially on warm summer nights, and have put a lot of work into their patio, which is called "Simpler Times". It's a place where they forget the worries of the outside world, of bills and work and sadness and stress, and just laugh, drink, eat, even play music. I love how cozy they have made it in the last year, from things like adding a whole new flight of stairs to the small details of tucking a birdhouse into some delicate tree branches. We have had many good times in Simpler Times, from bonfires to graduation parties to celebrating my brother being cancer-free for 20 years. So much love floating around.







I love how there are pieces on the patio that are usually confined to the indoors: dressers, mirrors, beds, etc.

And Huckleberry Finn, of course, kept me company as I snapped away. He is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the very best fixture in my mother's garden.

playing with a Minolta

Another day at the lake with the boys! Here are some of the photos from the roll of film we experimented with this week. I have a few more from the Farmer's Market, for another post.



Story of this photo: While my sister and I are swimming, I look over and see a big fish swimming towards her. My first instinct, being the nature-minded girl that I am, is to yell and run away. However, this yelling prompted the older Russian couple fishing nearby to jump up, yelling Russian things, hand my sister this long net and look at her urgently. While I stood at a distance, shrieking, my sister takes the net, swoops it into the water, and catches the fish. I was so shocked at this chain of events that I literally laughed for 5 minutes--so, so happy this moment is caught on film.


By the way, if you like film photography, you should check out this post over at despising life is so passe. She has some lovely photos up that are also taken with a Minolta.
Do you like to experiment with film? Do you think it's worth the extra money?

sister friends

I shared a few photos from my sister's visit a few weeks ago, but I wanted to share some more from that week! My boyfriend's best friend was visiting too, and we had so much fun playing in the sun.

I have been dying to make blueberry pancakes for the past month, so my sister and I made a yummy breakfast for the boys with fresh blueberries. I love having coffee/breakfast with loved ones--I think it's my favorite meal to share!




Later that day we hiked to a beautiful place called Fragrance Lake. It was a hot day, and the hike to the lake is 2 miles straight uphill, so it felt so wonderful to jump in the water at the top! We had the lake to ourselves and had a lovely time swimming, laughing, and eating our PB&J's--goin' old school.

When we got home, the boys made us dinner at my boyfriend's new house and we ate on their precious front patio..such a nice end to the day. also, disclaimer: I had food in my mouth when that picture was taken, hence the strange face!

I also have some film pictures from the visit that I will be sharing in my next post. My dad is letting me borrow his Minolta Maxxum 5000i that he bought in the 90s. It has been really fun experimenting with it, and I developed my first roll yesterday. Not all of them are amazing, but a few turned out nicely.
Hope you are all having sunshine in your parts of the world! Here, it has been partly cloudy for what seems like years, with about 60% humidity. Do you know what that is doing to my poor hair?!

afternoon snack

My mom's "Better than Sex Chocolate Cake" with dark chocolate frosting and freshly picked raspberries from her garden on top. Paired with a homemade vanilla iced latte, cuddles with my puppy, and a lazy afternoon. Definitely worth the drive home.

I feel so lucky to have such a place to come home to whenever I need a re-charge, some TLC, and some puppy love. Not to mention the sweets. :) I'll be doing another blog on my mother's garden later this week--it is fully in bloom and exploding in summer color!

box of memories

I made a quick trip home last week to surprise my parents (and locked my keys in my car in the middle of nowhere, while on a desperate journey to find a Starbucks--but that's another story). The only downside of surprising them, however, is they had plans both nights I was home! In case you were wondering, that's how cool I am.. even my parents have better options than hanging out with me. But, my puppy doesn't! I ended up in my sister's room with my boy Huckleberry Finn, where I saw an old shoe box I had decorated and filled with memories throughout high school: notes, pictures, posters from concerts, ticket stubs, report cards, and even some sad/angsty poetry. It was such a trip!
A lot of the notes were from boys...a few made me gasp, laugh, or just simply shake my head. High school seems so far away now, and most of the people in 'the box' are people who I've totally lost track of except for the occasional Facebook or text conversation. Though it was interesting to look through the contents and relive high school a bit, I must say that I was happy to put the lid back on and put the box back on its shelf in the top of my sister's closet. I like my adult-ish life much better, even if I don't get as many notes from awkward boys these days ;)
I leave you with a photo of me from my sophomore year of high school:

Do you have your high school memories saved somewhere? Or would you rather never remember those times?

theme party 3: Candyland

If you've been reading for a while, you may know that I just can't resist a theme party--remember the poncho party and the 90s party? They make parties so much fun, and so much more enjoyable to photograph. My roommate turned 21 last week, and opted for a Candyland themed party! Now, first a disclaimed: the morning of the party, I had to get up at 5:30 am for work and got off just in time to shower, get dinner, and get ready for the party. So I didn't dress up as one of the characters and didn't have a ton of time to get ready. BUT, I did have a new dress from Urban Outfitters that I've been dying to wear. And, it happened to be striped. I knew I wanted to wear it, so I thought of copping out and just going as a "Sweetheart"...until it came to me! I went as a Candy Striper--not to be confused with Candy Stripper, as happened several times that night. You know, the volunteer nurses in the 1950s who got the nickname from their white-and-red striped uniforms? I threw on the dress, all the pink accessories I had, a nametag of sorts, and I was good to go.


Raleigh didn't dress up, but his puppy shirt is always a party favorite.

My roommate Brittany, the birthday girl, dressed as Princess Lolly.

..aaaand so did the girl next to her. Competition! ;)


These girls are sitting right where we did several cake walks throughout the night. Everybody brought either cakes or cookies to share and to use as prizes. As the night went on, the cake walks turned more into cake dances. So sweet!


The headband started to squeeze my head after a while, so I lost it halfway through the night. Beauty is pain, but not when you're trying to dance!

Can't wait for the next themed party. What are some good themes you've done/thought of? I'm ready to start planning MY 21st already!

Dress: Urban Outfitters
Shoes: Target
Necklace and Scarf (worn as belt): Thrifted

I've been wandering aro-o-o-ound

My sister came to visit me last week, and between days of hiking and lake loungin' (more later) we had a lazy day of wandering around Bellingham's historic district, talking, sitting in the sun, eating gelato, and meeting the boys for Thai food. My life seems to be involving Thai food alot lately, and I am not complaining.



I unearthed these cut-off Levi's last week after missing them for about a year--so happy! I've basically been living in them since then. They are so comfy and just long enough to not be hoochie mama...(right?) This outfit is pretty simple but was perfect for traipsing around town in.

After taking my photos, my little sister wanted in on the action...such a diva!
My outfit:
Sweater: Forever21
Shorts: Levi's, Thrifted (used to be pants)
Shoes: Urban Outfitters

Her outfit:
Romper: Pac Sun
Sweater: Buffalo Exchange